The conflict deaths last year they were at the highest levels of the century, mainly because of the wars in Ukraine and Ethiopia, according to an annual report published by the think tank. Institute of Economy and Peace (IEP).

He Global Peace Index is a project that measures the degree of seizure in the world with quantitative data from 163 countries, comprising 99.7% of the population. This is the ninth year since 2014 in which the data reveals decreasing trends in the field of peace and security worldwide, says the report, which states that deaths caused by war have increased by 96% compared to 2021, with 238,000 deaths.

“Conflict levels in 2022 have been the worst since the Rwandan genocide in 1994,” he told EFE steven killelea, founder of IEP. This is partly because “wars today are unwinnable: with a resilient and adequately armed civilian population, armies cannot easily rouse the population, conflict becomes endemic,” he added.

A total of 79 countries have suffered a general increase in your seizure levelsabove all Ethiopia, Myanmar, Ukraine, Israel and South Africa. The wars in Ukraine and Ethiopia have caused the highest number of deaths in 2022, with some 83,000 and 100,000 victims as a result of the conflict, respectively. Faced with this scenario, Killelea stated that “new ways of achieving peace need to be found, because these conflicts do not end and the economic cost is immense.”

“Technological innovation intended for military use, such as drones or even social media, are changing the way war is waged. In the case of Ukraine, the government collects live, raw intelligence from social media,” he said.

“Europe less secure than it was 15 years ago”

The more “peaceful” countriesdisplays the report, are Iceland, Denmark, Ireland and New Zealandwhile Spain occupies number 32. For the sixth consecutive year, Afghanistan is the least peaceful country, followed by Yemen, Syria, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Europe continues to be the most stable region in the world, but Killelea qualifies that “geopolitical tensions and deteriorating relations with neighboring countries lead to increasing militarization, partly due to its proximity to Ukraine and Russia…Europe is generally less secure in what it was 15 years ago.

In the case of Latin America, Uruguay and Colombia would be the safest country and the most conflictiveAlthough in general, despite the “political instability” and “the omnipresence of organized crime”, the situation in the countries of South America is gradually improving compared to previous years. In economic terms, the overall impact of this widespread escalation of violence it has increased by 17% compared to the previous year, with a cost of 17.5 trillion dollars (about 16 trillion euros) in 2022, which is equivalent to 12.9% of global GDP.

In particular, the economic impact of violence in Ukraine It has increased by 479% or 449,000 million dollars (411,240 million euros), the equivalent of 64% of the country’s GDP. Besides, 92 countries have increased their military spending since 2008: the largest increases came from China, the US and India.

The report indicates that the internationalization of conflicts, caused by the intervention of third countries (as is the case of Syria, Ukraine and Libya, among others), increased “considerably” in 2022, with a total of 91 countries involved in external conflicts in compared to the 58 participating countries in 2008. The study highlights that geopolitical tensions between the US and China, widespread military interventionism, low cost of production and easy access to certain military technology (the use of drones increased by 40 .8% in 2022) predicts a few years to come devoted to conflict.